Calgary Gay History

Thanks to everyone who came out to the queer history presentation last night at the Memorial Park Library. Kevin concluded his talk with a quote from Timothy Snyder’s profound book On Tyranny.

History allows us to see patterns and make judgements. It sketches for us the structures within which we can seek freedom. It reveals moments, each one of them different, none entirely unique. To understand one moment is to see the possibility of another. History permits us to be responsible: not for everything, but for something. The Polish poet Czesław Miłosz thought that such a notion of responsibility worked against loneliness and indifference. History gives us the company of those who have done and suffered more than we have.

—Timothy Snyder

To that end, this Sunday at 8:30 PM, see Queendom at CUFF.Docs. The documentary is about Gena Marvin, a contemporary queer artist from a small town in Russia. Gena stages radical public performances—in a nation hostile to queers—that becomes a new form of art and activism.

Let’s give Gena some company in Calgary.

{KA}